Byron Dorgan: “I want to make a brief opening comment about the Energy bill on the floor of the Senate. First, I think the product of…”

“I want to make a brief opening comment about the Energy bill on the floor of the Senate. First, I think the product of the Energy Committee is a bill that advances this country's interests. I think the work done by Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman is quite extraordinary. At a time when there is so much partisanship and division and so much difficulty in getting together, this bill was the product of two Senators-- coincidentally, from the same State--who decided to write a bipartisan bill. So the result was a vote in the committee of 21 to 1 for this Energy bill. I think the bill is progressive and strong and advances our country's interests. First, I wanted to say thanks to both of them. I think what we have is a good bill. I am going to vote for some amendments that I think will strengthen it. Such as one we did not include in committee that would move us toward energy independence by requiring 10 percent of the electricity to be produced from renewable sources of energy. We call that a renewable portfolio standard. That needs to be in the bill. I will vote for an amendment to deal with that. There are other issues as well that would advance us toward greater energy independence that I will support. The question for us is how do we remove for America the addiction to foreign sources of oil?…”